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Please Help Me

Hey...I hope someone can help me. I use the double breast pump every 3-4 hours for 10 minutes...which produces about 100 ml per bottle. Last saturday I drank alcohol so I was going to pump and dump it out but I got lazy. I went over 12 hours without pumping so by Sunday my breasts were engourged. I pumped it all out and got back to my regular schedule. Everything seemed fine. Then Monday came and I was only able to produce about 20 ml per bottle. Its been 5 days and its still the same. What happened? How can I get back to normal?

Re: Please Help Me

When you let yourself get engorged, you (unintentionally) gave your body the message that a lot of the milk you were producing wasn't needed. When you went back to pumping, your body was still in the "mindset" that it had been making too much milk, so it ratcheted production way down. Now, every time you pump out 20 ml, your body thinks to itself "Job well done, produce the same 20 ml next time, because it's not like I'm being asked for more."

The way to fix this is to give your body the message that there's a lot more demand than there is supply, and that it's time to increase production. Some things which may help do that include:
- Pump more often. If you're pumping every 3 hours, try pumping every 2 hours. If you're pumping every 2 hours, try pumping once per hour.
- Pump for longer amounts of time. If you're pumping for 10 minutes per side, try increasing that to 15 minutes per side.
- Power pumping- pump both sides for 10 minutes, rest for 10, pump for 10, rest for 10, and pump once more for 10 for a total of 30 minutes of pumping in an one-hour period. This is supposed to mimic the way a baby feeds and boosts its mom's supply during a growth spurt.
- Use the best pump you can afford. If your pump can't do the job, consider renting a hospital-grade pump from a lactation consultant.
- Herbs- fenugreek, blessed thistle, and plain old oatmeal are all used to increase supply.